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Broken Crescent by S. Andrew Swann. check out website: www.dawbooks.com
In historical novels or modern adventures, this is relatively easy: the culture is seen through the eyes of the traveller, the shipwrecked mariner or the captured soldier. In Science Fiction, similar ruses can be applied. In her early novels, C.J. Cherryh specialised in the lone human falling among aliens. Ursula K. LeGuin has also used the idea of a stranger, either in an alien land as in 'The Left Hand Of Darkness' or in an ideologically strange place as in 'The Dispossessed'. To get the same transposition into a fantasy world is more difficult as it is always useful to have a character we can identify with and who comes from the same kind of background we have. Lewis Carroll's Alice entered her Wonderland first down a rabbit hole and then through a mirror. C.S. Lewis's children found their way into Narnia through the back of a wardrobe. S. Andrew Swann utilises magic. The wielder of that magic is a God.
Other than having a convenient person through whose eyes we can view the strange landscape and customs, there is always the question, 'Why?' In too many cases, it is simply because the author can. Swann's God has, however, chosen his victim carefully. Nate Black was, in his precocious teenage years, an expert hacker for whom there was no limit to the challenges he was prepared to go for. When he broke into a government defence site, he suddenly became aware that what he was doing was very stupid indeed, so went to great lengths to eradicate his on-line identity. Now it seems that someone has discovered his secret. This person is prepared to manipulate him. He is given a choice. As a result, he ends up in another world where he does not speak the language and is regarded with great suspicion. He is captured, carted off and tortured. He has no idea why. There are many pitfalls Swann could have fallen into. He manages to avoid most of them. If the story stayed entirely with Nate, it is probable that the bigger picture would have remained obscure. It is necessary, therefore, to use native people as occasional viewpoint characters. Nate is helped to escape. The motivation is political rather than altruistic as there is a conflict between the wizards of the College of Man and the monarchy. These wizards are able to control things by speaking the language of the gods. It is Nate's skills as a hacker that enable him to discover why and thus become the pivotal character he is expected to be. Part of the history of this world is expressed in passages at the start of each section and within the book of mythology that Nate uses to improve his knowledge of the language. As in so many fantasy novels, these are parables, nuggets of truth that suggest the distant back story. They tell of the rivalry between two gods, Ghad and Man, for whom the people of this world are pawns in their power games and the suggestion is that Nate is merely their most recent game piece. The plot does have a kind of inevitable logic. Nate obviously has a purpose in being there and the elements are put together in a tight pattern. At the same time, there is a degree of dissatisfaction in the shape of the novel. It is difficult to pinpoint but is probably tired up with this logical progression. Despite the problems Nate faces, there seems to be insufficient tension. Because he is the outsider and the major viewpoint character, there is a high probability that he will survive his ordeals and solve the problems. The element missing is emotion and real worry about his chances of survival. Pauline Morgan
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OTHER REVIEWS - May 2004
Non Fiction Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross Futures: 50 Years In Space The Challenge Of The Stars by David A. Hardy and Patrick Moore Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon: Second Edition by Brian Roseberry DVDs Babylon 5: The Complete First Season: Signs and Portents Fantasy Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson The Siege Of Mithila by Ashok K. Banker Broken Crescent by S. Andrew Swann The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick The Weavers Of Saramyr by Chris Wooding The Iron Grail by Robert Holdstock Faerie Tales edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davies Darknesses by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Slipstream Changing Of Faces by Tim Lebbon Karloff’s Circus by Steve Aylett The Well Of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde Science Fiction The Golden Globe by John Varley Market Forces by Richard Morgan It Came From Outer Space screenplay by Ray Bradbury A Gift Of Dragons by Anne McCaffrey Different Kinds Of Darkness by David Langford Felaheen The Third Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Absolution Gap by Adrian Reynolds The Line Of Polity by Neal Asher The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley Natural History by Justina Robson Horror Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris Magazines
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When
explaining a new/future/fantasy society it is useful to introduce
an outsider who is seeing everything for the first time and trying
to make sense of it. 
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